Tips to Improve the Quality of Your Conference Calls

In today’s corporate world, conference calls are the glue that brings people together. Conference calls reduce the total cost of ownership by decreasing travel costs immensely. It is not only essential for you to utilize web and audio conferencing, but to make sure you are using it correctly. These tips will ensure that your conference call will be effective and productive.

1. Is a Conference Call Necessary?
When scheduling a conference call, you need to ask yourself, “Is this meeting necessary or can emails get it done?” Not every situation requires a conference call, but in truly urgent matters where real time response is required, this is the best option.

2. Who Really Needs To Be On the Call?
After you have decided that a conference call is needed, you will have to decide who would add value to the call. No one wants to feel like their time is being wasted. There is no shame in double checking the invite list to make sure that only necessary individuals are invited.

3. Include an Agenda
Adding an agenda to a meeting invite will increase the productivity. By including an agenda all the participants can be properly prepared to discuss each item. Also, it can help them confirm they are needed.

4. Minimize Text
When conducting a web meeting, graphics are a big part of the virtual presentation. You should cut down on textual matter so the audience will pay attention to you. As a rule of thumb , use text as a guide not as a complete thought.

5. Allow Questions
When hosting a conference call it is difficult to cover everything. Questions can help clarify some topics that were discussed. It can even bring up topics you may have missed or forgotten.

6. Assign Roles/Goals for Next Meeting
This is especially important for reoccurring meetings. This will guide the participants on next steps and ensure them to be prepared for the next meeting.

7. Follow Up
Most conference calls can be packed with information covering many different topics. Following up with your colleagues can ensure they understood everything discussed. It may even be beneficial to send out a survey afterwards asking for feedback.

8.*Bonus Tip: Use AnyTime Conferencing*
AnyTime Conferencing can help minimize your business time, resources, and global communications. Our fully redundant network will protect the reliability of your connections and minimize the impact of outages. AnyTime Conferencing even allows you to schedule and start meeting from Microsoft® Outlook®, Lync® and Google® Calendar.

For more information about how AnyTime Conferencing can improve your business’s communications, contact First Communications at 1-800-860-1261 or fcomsales@firstcomm.com.

By: Tony Davis, Product Management Associate